An Italian-run emergency hospital in Kabul tweeted that it was treating 21 injured people, four of whom died on arrival.
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Sporadic gunfire could be heard in an area with many shops and businesses and initial reports suggested that a guesthouse had been targeted, with attackers suspected to have entered the building, an Interior Ministry official said.
“Eyewitnesses here say that the first explosion was a suicide bomber”, she says.
The second struck just as soldiers, policemen and civilians hurried to help the victims, ” defence ministry spokesman Mohammad Radmanish told AFP.
According to Ministry of Health spokesman Ismail Kawosi, the confirmed death toll stood at 24, with at least 91 others wounded.
Among those killed was General Abdul Raziq, a senior Afghan army official and the chief of police for district two of Kabul city.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the bombing, which it said killed 58 officers and commanders.
“When the first explosion happened people crowded to the site and then the second blast occurred, which was really powerful and killed lots of people”, said Samiullah Safi, who witnessed the attack. “The enemies of Afghanistan have lost their ability to fight the Security and Defense Forces of the country”, Ghani said in a statement.
A Taliban attack on the defence ministry in February killed at least 15 people and wounded more than 30.
Government leaders have been preparing for a conference in Brussels next month regarding Afghan security forces’ inability to combat increasing Taliban violence.
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